Six architecture firms generate ideas sites on the Near West Side

Mark Debrauske, Nate Waddell and Lyssa Olker of HGA Architects and Engineers, and Carolyn Esswein, director of Community Design Solutions at the UWM School of Architecture and Urban Planning, listen as an audience member suggests an idea.

Cassandra Zumstein, Gloribed Rivera-Torres and Brian Miller of Miller Architectural Group sketch ideas for the site at 35th and State Street.

Brian Miller of Miller Architectural Group works on a drawing.

Site 2 Quorum (27th and Wells)
(Seated left): Kate Edwards, Brian Scotty, Emily Neal and Allyson Nemec from Quorum Architects, Inc. work on a site at 27th and Wells.

Lyssa Olker (left), Mark Debrauske, Nate Waddell and Alison Huebner of HGA Architects and Engineers discuss the site at the southwest corner of 27th and Wisconsin.

Near West Side Partners, in collaboration with UWM’s Community Design Solutions, hosted a daylong Design Charette to create a vision for six key commercial corridors on the Near West Side.

Representatives from six local architecture firms participated: Uihlein/Wilson Architects, Quorum Architects Inc., HGA Architects and Engineers, Engberg Anderson Architects, Miller Architectural Group and American Design Inc. Architects worked with attendees to generate and refine ideas for the commercial corridors at the event, held at the UWM School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

The sites were identified based on feedback from a series of focus groups, made up of stakeholders on the Near West Side, including residents, city officials, lenders, developers and business owners.

Near West Side Partners, Inc. is a nonprofit organization working to revitalize the area as a thriving business and residential corridor. It comprises five anchor institutions — Aurora Health Care, Harley-Davidson, Marquette University, MillerCoors and Potawatomi Business Development Corp.